Each day a different image or photograph is featured, with an
accompanying caption, which deals with various topics in Earth Science.

Copepods

The photo above shows a batch of aquatic crustaceans called copepods in a water sample collected from the Gulf of Maine. The largest in the picture is only about 2 mm long. Copepods are the most numerous multicelled animals in seawater and may be the greatest contributors in the animal world to the carbon sink -- the capture of carbon from our atmosphere. At the end of a copepod's life, the carbon sinks with the little creature and remains on the ocean floor.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute provided this copepod-rich sample to my students. We've been studying these creatures with a microscope that has a camera attached so that a projected image can be seen on a 20 in (50.8 cm) computer screen. This setup allows for a community of learners to observe together. Photo taken on January 7, 2011.